Cassini program manager at JPL, Earl Maize, left, and spacecraft operations team manager for the Cassini mission at Saturn, Julie Webster embrace after the Cassini spacecraft plunged into Saturn, Friday, Sept. 15, 2017 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Since its arrival in 2004, the Cassini-Huygens mission has been a discovery machine, revolutionizing our knowledge of the Saturn system and captivating us with data and images never before obtained with such detail and clarity. On Sept. 15, 2017, operators will deliberately plunge the spacecraft into Saturn, as Cassini gathered science until the end. The “plunge” ensures Saturn’s moons will remain pristine for future exploration. During Cassini’s final days, mission team members from all around the world gathered at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, to celebrate the achievements of this historic mission. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

On Sept. 15, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will complete its remarkable story of exploration with an intentional plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere, ending its mission after nearly 20 years in space. News briefings, photo opportunities and other media events will be held at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, and will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

Launched in 1997, Cassini arrived in orbit around Saturn in 2004 on a mission to study the giant planet, its rings, moons and magnetosphere. In April of this year, Cassini began the final phase of its mission, called its Grand Finale — a daring series of 22 weekly dives between the planet and its rings. On Sept. 15, Cassini will plunge into Saturn, sending new and unique science about the planet’s upper atmosphere to the very end. After losing contact with Earth, the spacecraft will burn up like a meteor. This is the first time a spacecraft has explored this unique region of Saturn — a dramatic conclusion to a mission that has revealed so much about the ringed planet.

Cassini flight controllers will monitor the spacecraft’s final transmissions from JPL Mission Control. Interviews with mission engineers and scientists will be available for media.

Cassini Media Events and Schedule

(The NASA TV news conferences will be available on the agency’s website, and times and details are subject to change).

Tuesday, Aug. 29

NASA held a media teleconference on Aug. 29 to preview activities during Cassini’s final two weeks. The event, which is archived, included these panelists:

Curt Niebur, Cassini program scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington

Earl Maize, Cassini project manager, JPL

Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist, JPL

Wednesday, Sept. 13

1 p.m. EDT — News conference from JPL with a detailed preview of final mission activities (also available on NASA TV and online). Panelists will include:

Hunter Waite, team lead for Cassini’s Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio

11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. PDT — Media tours of Mission Control (each group tour will last at least half an hour)

Thursday, Sept. 14

10 a.m. to 3 p.m PDT — NASA Social — onsite gathering for 30 pre-selected social media followers (JPL-accredited media may also attend). Events will include a tour, and a speaker program from 1 to 2 p.m. PDT that will be carried on NASA TV and online.

11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. PDT — Media tours of Mission Control (each group tour will last at least half an hour)

7 to 8:30 a.m. EDT — Live commentary on NASA TV and online. In addition, an uninterrupted, clean feed of cameras from JPL Mission Control, with mission audio only, will be available during the commentary on the NASA TV Media Channel and on Ustream.

About 8 a.m. EDT — Expected time of last signal and science data from Cassini

Launched almost 20 years ago, the Cassini probe burned in the atmosphere of Saturn. Scientists hope that in the last moments of his “life” Cassini sent to Earth data that will reveal the secrets of the atmosphere of Saturn.

Red lines on the surface of the icy moon of Tethys.

Rings of Saturn “C” and “B” in the infrared spectrum.

The two largest satellites of Saturn are the fiery Titan and the icy Rhea.

Dazzling Saturn.

The satellite Enceladus sits behind Saturn.

“Rose”. A polar storm with a diameter of 2 thousand kilometers.

Titan on the background of Saturn.

Dion on the background of Saturn.

The Enceladus satellite, whose surface tells of great geological activity.

The solstice took place on May 24, 2017. The Cassini mission is using the unparalleled opportunity to observe changes that occur on the planet as the Saturnian seasons turn.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 17 degrees above the ring plane. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on April 17, 2017 using a spectral filter which preferentially admits wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 939 nanometers.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 733,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Saturn. Image scale is 44 miles (70 kilometers) per pixel.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.